the same goes for chicago where there's a greenville, mississippi, club. there's a greenwood, mississippi, club. there are the newton, mississippi, club, brookhaven, mississippi, club. so, all of these were options there. and in new york there are churches where almost everybody's from south carolina. >> what year did you decide on the three that you were going to focus on? >> i decided on the three finally in 1996. >> i'm going to -- i've got your bio here. i'm just going to read a couple things. tell me when i'm wrong. you spent about 11 years with the "new york times," 1984 to 1995. you're at boston university right now teaching? >> yes. >> you live in atlanta. >> i live in both cities. >> commuting back and forth. >> yes. >> you taught at emory for three years, at princeton for two years. you've taught -- you graduated from howard here in washington, d.c. you also taught at harvard some, lectured, and at northwestern. why did you leave journalism? >> i don't consider myself to have left journalism. >> well, why did you leave the newspaper industry? >>